MaggieMae
Reality bits
- Apr 3, 2009
- 24,043
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One thing our friend here illustrates though is that some Leftists have no concept of what 'in context' means, and have very little evidence for the accusations they make about this person or that person. And the double standard is alive and well. They read the opinion of somebody who says what they want to hear and hold it up as 'evidence'. ...
As I am sure you know Media Matters has 180 pages of outrageous or inaccurate Glenn Beck statements (yes I know they get some funding from Soros.) with links to the actual video and audio. You can also find some of his misinformation on many of the fact checking sites but I know none of that will satisfy you.
The truth is that is Glenn is a moderately intelligent person who knows his every word is being recorded so he is very careful (not to be confused with honest) about what he says.
Short list of some of his tactics:
1 He frequently states his 'enemies' intentions as fact when it is merely his opinion/guess (e.g. Obama wants the economy to fail) then he 'backs it up' with some obscure 'evidence' (quote/paper/link) that rarely shows a clear cause/effect.
2 He jumps to unsubstantiated conclusions and then one of his producers will shout out an even crazier assertion (straw man) in a mocking outraged left winger voice (e.g. Glenn Beck says Obama wants to kill off old people to save on health care expenses.)
3 He makes implications that are false/unproven by using sarcasm (e.g. Glenn states with thick sarcasm, "No, No... Obama would never do something to intentionally raise gas prices...no, of course not.")
4 He leaves out important facts that makes a neutral story seem quite damning (e.g. loans for foreign countries to drill oil were actually approved by Bush appointees or that it is normal for presidents to have 'czars' or that 'czars' is just a media term.)
He tries real hard not to outright lie (probably because he knows he is constantly watched) so he misleads people with lies of omission and half-truths. In other words he isn't intellectually honest.
I don't want to 'prove' anything but I would challenge any Beck fan to criticly listen to his show because I don't think you will be able to say that he is intellectually honest.
Here is a good site to help with an evaluation: 10 Signs of Intellectual Honesty |
Having been a member of the media for a number of years and a media watcher all my increasingly lengthy adult life, as well as a reporter charged with maintaining strict objectivity and sensitive to any discernable bias and then editor charged with making sure reporters maintained objectivity and were free of bias, I feel I am at least somewhat competent in evaluating objectivity versus obvious bias versus intentional dishonesty.
And I think you're not being objective in your evaluation of Glenn Beck.
He is absolutely biased on the side of Constitutional integrity as he believes the Founders saw it, and his entire perspective is grounded there. He will freely admit to that bias and it is obvious.
He is sometimes wrong on his facts, and when he becomes aware of that, he is reliable to correct his own errors.
In my opinion he is sometimes wrong in his conclusions, but he does not base his success on whether anybody agrees with him, nor is he obviously defensive when others disagree with him. But again, he cites almost every source that informs the conclusions he draws and encourages people to check them out himself. You don't get any more honest or any more objective than that.
There is no person alive that given fifteen hours on the radio every week, five hours of mostly monologue on television every week, numerous guest appearances in which his remarks will be mostly extemporaneous, plus prolific writings including several books on the best seller's list, only Jesus Christ himself would not ever say something he would like to take back, would never misstate a fact, or draw a conclusion that in retrospect would be stated differently.
Intellectual honesty recognizes that and allows people to be imperfect.
Fantatical ideology and hate mongerers do not.
I am informed by what Beck says. Not what others say about him.
Just curious, but I thought you were a social worker. (Recalling our many debates over the issue of how to deal with poverty.) Did you have two full-time jobs? Reporter and social worker?